Foundryside

I was supposed to read it slower but you know how that goes, ended up reading almost all of it in two days once I got drawn in. Pros: - I enjoyed the story quite a lot, it took me a little bit of time to get invested in the characters, but in my opinion they were also fairly well done. - The prose itself is good, nothing astounding or to write home about but nothing to take you out of the story either. - The magic system was interesting, relatively simple idea but with broad applications and flexibility, and it served the story being told very well in my opinion. - Brutalizes unrestrained capitalism fairly hard which is always fun, especially in the final part (Although the tone in that sense seems to change a bit at the very end. Not sure if the capitalism brutalization was unintentional, or if I just need to RAFO.) Cons: I only really have two complaints: - The book can be a bit heavy with the exposition dump at points, especially as it relates to the magic system, given that it's not always the most straightforward and would be hard to introduce with more subtlety. - The plot felt like there was a bit too much random chance thrown in there, along with plot twists out the ass. None of them felt too much on an individual basis, but the plots twists and the moments of bad luck and bad timing leading to major changes/developments just kept coming throughout the story.

In the end I would probably give this a 4.5 out of personal enjoyment, a 4 on technical execution (not that I'm super qualified in that department but whatever), assuming 5 on either scale is a masterpiece. As I can't use fractions of a star, 4 it is.

Foundryside is an incredibly start to what has the potential to be an amazing—and amazingly unique—new fantasy series. From the setting to the characters, Foundryside delivers. Robert Jackson Bennett has already shown he is a great storyteller with his Divine Cities series, and now he shows us that lightning can strike twice.

There is no way to avoid comparing Foundryside to Bennett’s earlier works in the Divine Cities trilogy. Once again, Bennett has given us some deep characters, and unique setting, and a magic system that is just absolutely amazing. I’m actually quite impressed that Bennett has managed to give us a magic system that seems very “hard,” but yet retains a great deal of mystery. He goes just deep enough to let us understand what we need to for the plot. It’s nicely balanced and—while I normally enjoy hard magic systems—I found this system to be intricate enough for my tastes without the need for info dumps or that sort of thing. The characters did not capture my attention and love quite as quickly as the characters in City of Stairs, but by the end of the book I was rooting for Sancia and Gregor every bit as much as I was for Shara and Sigrud. Oh, and Clef. My gosh—I love Clef so much. This novel includes more humor than Bennett’s Divine Cities, and that’s largely down to Clef. One of the things I loved most about Foundryside was the way Bennett keeps you guessing about who is on whose side and—frankly—who the good guys and bad guys really are.

Any weaknesses in this novel are fairly mild and largely down to preference. It took a little longer than I would have liked for the characters to resonate with me. There were a few moments when I would have liked a little more explanation to the magic system, though I anticipate that more explanation will come in subsequent novels. Perhaps the largest weakness is that I felt like the middle of the book could have potentially been tightened up a little bit, or maybe the plotting made a little more tense. The ending largely makes up for that deficiency, however.

Foundryside is a wonderful read. It has deep, complex characters and a wonderfully imagined magic system set in a fascinating world. If you haven’t already gotten your hands on Foundryside you need to do so, posthaste. 4.7/5 stars.

5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – I liked it, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing